Bremerton leads in national water challenge

In the National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation,
Bremerton is leading all U.S. cities with populations between
30,000 and 100,000.

The water challenge, sponsored by the Wyland Foundation, asks
people to take a pledge to work for water conservation. Bremerton
Mayor Patty Lent has embraced the national competition by talking
about it often when she meets with community groups.

To take the pledge and boost your own city’s ranking in the
competition, go to www.mywaterpledge.com and fill
out a brief form.

Last year, Bremerton came in first among medium-sized cities in
Washington state and third among those in the West.

“Water is Bremerton’s remarkable resource,” the mayor said in a
news release. “I encourage all Bremerton residents to pledge to
learn more about their water and energy use at home. This
challenge, which runs through April, is an exciting opportunity to
learn about water wise habits as we engage in a friendly
competition with other cities across the nation to create a more
sustainable environment.”

Kathleen Cahall, Bremerton’s water resources manager, noted that
this year’s competition pits all like-sized cities in the country
against each other. Last year, the first competition was regional.
Now, there are five nationwide population categories instead of
three for each region.

Bremerton has not done as much personal outreach on the project
as last year, Kathleen told me, but the city has placed messages on
city utility bills and in electronic news letters; on BKAT, the
community access television station; and with flyers for students
to take home at schools within Bremerton’s water service area.

“It really takes no effort for us to be involved,” Kathleen
said, “and it is easy for our residents to learn about water-wise
habits and pollution-prevention.”

A federal water-quality permit requires the city to do public
education, and people can learn from the water challenge, she
said.

As an added incentive, the contest awards prizes to random
people who take the pledge.

The only other Washington cities currently in the top 10 are
Seattle, which is eighth among cities with more than 600,000
people, and Sequim, which is tenth among cities with populations
from 5,000 to 30,000.

Port Orchard is 14th among the 5,000-30,000 cities. Poulsbo is
119th and Bainbridge Island is 291st in that same population
category.

Cities in Washington that ranked within the top 100 in their own
population categories include Lacey, 15th; Bellevue, 19th; Tacoma,
42nd; Spokane, 48th; North Bend, 50th; Vancouver, 53rd; and
Bellingham, 62nd.

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One thought on “Bremerton leads in national water challenge”

One more week to participate in the water pledge which goes through the end of April. The City of Bremerton is pleased to be ranked #1 in our category! Bremerton residents are encouraged to take a minute and visit http://www.mywaterpledge.com and learn good water habits and also help Bremerton stay in our top spot in this fun contest.